Abstract

The evolution of periodic arrays of macrosteps and facets on III—V semiconductor surfaces during molecular beam epitaxy is used to create lateral quantum size effects in GaAs quantum wire and quantum dot structures in an AlAs matrix. We show that well ordered alternating wide and narrow regions of GaAs and AlAs form symmetric and asymmetric quantum-dot arrays on (111) and (211) GaAs, respectively, and periodic quantum wire arrays on (311) GaAs. The accumulation of steps by step bunching on (210) GaAs allows us to fabricate mesoscopic step arrays in GaAs-AlAs multilayer structures with a lateral periodicity comparable to the exciton Bohr radius. The observed optical properties of these corrugated multilayer structures confirm the additional lateral size quantization.

Footnotes

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